Captain America: The Winter Soldier may not be the perfect Marvel movie, but it is the best of this year's crop, and possibly the best solo Marvel superhero (non-team) movie so far.
Why? Because Captain America: The Winter Soldier has learned what all superhero films should learn - that the superhero doesn't make the movie, it should first be a good story - science fiction, mystery, thriller, whatever - and then the superhero should be placed in that story. Too often superhero movies are simply 'origin' stories for the superhero and they fight a supervillain - the end. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is actually a thriller, specifically, a spy thriller (ala James Bond), where the protagonist happens to be Captain America. That's the difference, and what a difference it makes.
Could it be better? Yes, there's still a lot of room for improvement here. Robert Redford appears as a member of a covert organization (SHIELD) that is compromised from within (hmmm... where have we seen this before *cough* Three Days of the Condor... *cough* Spy Game), and from the get-go, you just know he's going to turn out to be the bad guy, but O.K.
Also the 'comic book physics' get pushed a little too far at times. Captain America should be able to do superhuman things to a point, but he really isn't Superman, just an augmented human. Not only are some of the things a little too physics defying, but by making him such an uber-badass all the time it tends to paint him into a corner. For example, at one point he surrenders when he's surrounded by a group of armed men pointing guns at him. That makes sense. But what doesn't make sense is why he's surrendering to a group of armed men pointing guns at him this time, when all throughout the film he's taken on groups of them, including an aircraft shooting at him - with him just dodging the bullets, and now suddenly he thinks he can't do it again, despite having done it just an hour ago?
But those things can be overlooked given the smooth forward momentum of the entire story. Large parts for Nick Fury, Black Widow, and Falcon also really enhance the feeling that is a story about a world of super spies (Hell, even Batroc 'zee leeper' makes an appearance as a terrorist), and not just a Captain America saves the world type 'superhero' film.
That does mean sacrificing a little of the patriotic American-centric nature of the character (hey, you knew they were going to do that anyway, given the reliance of the studio on foreign market success), but at least it does include some commentary on the state of the U.S., with a subtext hinting at the NSA bulk data collection, and the controversial drone program downplayed but evident.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier has raised the bar a little for superhero movies going forward, let's see if its successors are up to the challenge.
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